We’re so behind updating this blog! We got home last week after traveling for a little more than 11 months - about 8 months we spent in Asia, 3 more in Europe, and this is a great time to come back home.
We visited a total of 20 countries:
- China — visited twice, northern trip during September-October southern trip in December
- South Korea — 3 weeks during October
- Japan — about 2 weeks during November
- Thailand — few days in Bangkok at the end of December and then all of February
- Cambodia — all of January
- Malaysia — a week in Georgetown and KL
- India — three weeks in the north-east in March and three weeks in the north-west in May
- Nepal — all of April
- Finland — Helsinki for about 24 hours
- Italy — 10 days, a week in Rome and a visit to Pompeii, and 3 days in Venice
- Hungary — our base from June till August, mostly stayed in Budapest
- Three weeks road trip in the Balkans — Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia
- Two weeks road trip in central Europe — Austria (Vienna and Salzburg), Germany (a weekend visiting friends in Stuttgart and Frankfurt), Czech Republic (Prague), Slovakia and northern Hungary
- A week long bike camp near Vienna
- France — 3 days in Paris, on the way back home
Unfortunately, we had to skip South America this time, as we felt exhausted after 8 months traveling throughout Asia. Our time in Europe was a nice break from the ‘hardcore’ backpacking, we stayed put in Budapest for most of the time, the atmosphere was more relaxing and it felt great being among family and friends.
We had an amazing trip overall, I can’t say it was easy or that we enjoyed everything. It is still being together, the whole family, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with little or no room. Literally. Still, despite all the challenges we faced, the occasional sicknesses, or the language barriers, it was an amazing experience I’d happy to repeat again, probably in different regions though.
It feels good to be back home, we are still putting everything in place. It is funny how quickly we forgot some of our stuff— we often wonder what is this thing and where it’s supposed to be. The kids were super excited, jumping from one toy to the next book, overwhelmed. This is actually a good thing because it keeps them occupied and they fight much less. Next week they will be back to school, we wonder how it’s going to be, but this is a subject for a future post…
